Been in the industy 15 years,top apprenticeship(best thing that ever happened to me),stoped building aeroplanes, started to work for airlines and things went down hill.I've got every license I can except Avionics(no doubt the CAA at sum point will make me get that one) which for me has been very hard work without much support from the industry.Now after all the work JAR 66 comes a long and my licenses are joke,Now I getting away from the point.
Mate dont do it.You will be treated like a C#*t by everyone and his dog,flight crew,cabin crew,CAA,management and the fare paying passengers,because you haven't saved there lives by grounding the aircraft you have just made them late for there holiday or bussiness meeting.Working conditions are hard.If you work line maintenance you will be out in the wind,rain,snow,night and day.Health and safety go out the window both in the hangar and on the line.I'm in my early thirties and I'm starting to feel the strain of the job both physicaly and mentally.Working shift is one of the plus points but that does take it toll on relationshops.As for the job being differant every day,no not really.Just another broken aeroplane to fix.
So why dont I get out,because I have bills to pay.To do something else I would have to take a pay drop or retrain because my licenses dont mean shag all out side this industry.
To sum up I would not let my kids become an aircraft engineer.So once again dont do it.